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Drag and Drop Sort on Smart Lists

shardvicens says:
How does Drag and Drop Sort work on Smart Lists? I had a "Today" Smart List that includes things due today or overdue with Priority:1 (and a few other conditions that don't really matter).

If I postpone a task till tomorrow, when tomorrow comes, does it appear in the list at the bottom? If I previously sorted it to the top of the list and then postpone it, does it re-appear at the top of the list?

I know I could conduct some tests and figure some of this out, but I'd prefer a page that explains the mechanism forthright, or an explanation provided by an agent. How is the order determined...are all tasks order:0, and changing the order increases or decreases their order position? I can't figure out how the programming is accomplished.

Thank you
Posted at 5:05pm on April 13, 2023
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi shardvicens,
Thanks for getting in touch.

Yes, new tasks that appear in that view will be listed at the bottom. A postponed task would be listed at the bottom too.

We appreciate your feedback about documenting this too! I've added this to our list.

As you work with your Smart List, please let us know if you have any feedback or other questions! And you can contact us if you'd like any further help from the team.
Posted 11 months ago
shardvicens says:
Ok what if I had a handful of tasks, one which is dragged to the top, and then all were postponed to tomorrow? Would that ordering be retained when they come back within that view?
Posted 11 months ago
shardvicens says:
I haven’t touched this list for a few days, and I see a task due today, that’s not at the bottom of the list, which is why I am confused.
Posted 11 months ago
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Postponing would reset the task sorting (for that task) so if you have new tasks appearing they may appear at the bottom. (They won't be put into any kind of sort order with drag and drop mode on.)

If you want to send any specifics, we're happy to look over what's happening for you if you want to send us any screenshots. You can contact us on the website to get a conversation started via email.
Posted 11 months ago
shardvicens says:
I appreciate your help, but that’s not at all how it works.

As a test, I created a task called “sort to top test”, sorted it to the top, and then postponed it. Today it reappeared at the top.

Is there someone you can ask regarding how this behavior works? There are some situations where I can’t figure out where in the list postponed items will reappear.
Posted 11 months ago
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi shardvicens,
Thanks for your patience while I tracked down this behavior.

Task positions for drag and drop are calculated like this:

task.view.position

So if I create a test task due today and sorted at the top: test.today.0. If I postpone the task, it becomes test.tomorrow.null (null is used when a drag & drop position is undefined). Once the task becomes due today, it’s back to test.today.0

In other words, a task remembers its position in each drag and drop view.

I'm sorry I misspoke about that scenario before but I hope this helps for your uses! Keep me posted on what you find. 💙
Posted 11 months ago
shardvicens says:
Wow, thanks for the great answer!

Is there any way to see what the value is? I haven't used Milkscript yet, but I've been looking for an excuse. :D
Posted 11 months ago
shardvicens says:
Also, how does it treat tasks with the same value?

Also, what happens if you drag a task down?

Also, what happens if you drag a task up, then down?

LOL, or if I could see the value, I could tinker and determine the behavior myself.
Posted 11 months ago
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi shardvicens,
It's not currently possible to see the value for a task's drag and drop ordering, sorry.

If a task has a set value for a list or view, it will be preserved. For example, if you have 5 tasks in Today and you complete #3 in order, it maintains its value of `3`, as do tasks 4 and 5. (If you uncomplete it afterward, it pops back into position 3.)

Dragging a task will change its value within the view, and two tasks would not have the same value within the same view. (If new tasks pop into that view they are given a higher value and placed at the bottom of the list.)

I hope this helps all around!
Posted 11 months ago
This topic has now been closed automatically due to a lack of responses in the past 90 days.